Mar. 2, 2014

MTSU students Nathaniel Johnston and Tyler King participated in this weekend's community event. / Photo by Dylan Aycock.

Written by

Mychal Wilson

Staff writer

Cynthia Allen with the MTSU Stormwater Program and MTSU student Taylor Briggs helped the Tennessee Environmental Council efforts to plant 10,000 trees across the state. / Photo by Dylan Aycock.

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Garrison Creek received a make-over when more than 50 volunteers came together in cooperation with Murfreesboro, the university and the state of Tennessee to clean the landscape and plant seedling trees.

Despite the cold damp weather, volunteers gathered together in the Kroger parking lot on Lascassas Pike and North Rutherford Boulevard to help out with the community event. Shortly after 9 a.m. those gathered divided into five groups and set out to work in one of four zones cleaning litter, digging holes and planting trees to help beautify the community and support a cleaner environment.

The teams, led by city and MTSU employees, looked for signs of excessive nutrient deposit in the creek and planted the trees in such a way as to reduce these deposits.

Working together, volunteers from the community and various organizations labored to clean the area and planting trees in the ground.

“We had a great bunch of kids show up to help us plant trees,” said Cynthia Allen with the university Environmental Safety Office. “The goal is to build up the stream bank with some tree canopy, to help reduce pollution and build up a filter zone.”

The creek, qualified as a stream by the state, feeds into the East Forks Stones River several miles above where the water treatment plant draws the city’s drinking water supply. A lack of strong foliage allowed water to break down the creek walls permitting fine sediments to wash into the river. These sediments get pulled into the treatment plant and costs unnecessary time, money and resources.

“The Tennessee Environmental Council provided all of the trees,” said Robert Haley, a Murfreesboro city employee. “John McFadden is the executive director, and he is aggressive on getting trees planted.”

Garrison Creek is on a list of streams the Tennessee Water Resources Division has as impaired on their maps. It is not meeting all of its classified uses and became classified that way because of the fine sediment accumulated on the bed. A lack of riparian, or streamside; vegetation and habitat are also among the reasons the creek considered impaired.

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“We’re working to improve streams in the city. Not just this one but others,” said Robert Haley, a city employee. “This is a fairly easy operation to plant trees.”

The support provided by the trees and their roots will strengthen the ground and banks of the creek. This will help reduce silt and other contaminants the treatment facility needs to remove. As part of an ongoing effort, this will help provide Murfreesboro with cleaner drinking water.

The newly planted trees will eventually provide habitat for birds, butterflies and other animals while providing the shade needed so fish can populate the water. The reduction of direct sunlight to the creek will also help rid the creek of a choking overabundance of algae.

The community event was part of a Tennessee Environmental Council effort to plant 10,000 trees across the state.

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